Plural rotary cutter bread slicing machine



Jan. 2s, 1947.` y

H. J. CRINER 2,414,857

PLURAL` ROTARY CUTTER BREAD SLICING MACHINE Filed Aug. 25, 1944 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 HsAHJornevs.

H. J. CRINER Jan. 2s, 1947.

PLURAL ROTARY' CUTTER BREAD SLICING lvIACHImsv Filed Aug. 25, 1944 2 Sheetsl-VSheet 2 l' www' BY Ml H s Afm FWSVS.

Patented Jan. 28, 1947 PLURAL ROTARY CUTTER BREAD SLICING MACHINE Harry Jl. Criner, Davenporhlowa, assignor of onehalf to A. G. Bush, Davenport, Iowa Application August 25, 1944, Serial No. 551,158

12 Claims.

My invention relates to improvements in bread slicing machines of the rotary blade type.

The objects of my invention are to provide an eihcient bread slicing machine using a plurality of rotary blades as the slicing elements, with alternate blades running in opposite directionsv to facilitate the cutting of the bread andto prevent jamming and 4tearing thereof while passing through the blades; to provide improved means for driving in opposite directions alternate adjacent circular plates or blades in an extended series thereof; to provide means for readily changing a series of rotary blades in a bread slicing machine for the purpose of substituting a diierently spaced series of blades. Other objects will appear from the description.

I accomplish these objects by the means illustrated in the accompanying drawings which are illustrative and not drawn strictly to scale.

Figure l shows a side elevation of my machine;

Figure 2 shows a side elevation on a larger scale of the middle portion of my machine; l

Figure 3 shows a top or plan view of the part shown in Figure 2, with a part of the handle 22 and the cover or hood i9 broken away, showing one of the anges of the hood I9 and the column 2li in section on the line 2 2 of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a sectional detail showing blades with my preferred means for driving alternate lades in opposite directions;

Figure 5 is a sectional detail on the line 5-5 ofv Figure fi;

Figure 6 is a detail of an alternate form of driving mechanism;

Figure 7 is a detail with parts broken away showing a front View oi the alternate driving mechanism shown in Figure 6;

Figure 8 is a detail showing a variant form of driving plates.

Similar numerals refer to throughout the several views.

My machine comprises a rectangular frame l with four feet 2 preferably cast integral therewith. The side plates of the frame may be connected by integrally formed crossbars or partitions il' and 53, extending transversely of the machine. Cast integral with the side plates are vertical posts 5| and 52.

Upon the bars 55 and 53 and postsiil and 52, supportingy bars l5 are mounted at the opposite sides of the frame Which may be secured in place upon the framel by dowel pins i4 extending into suitable openings formed in the bars 5I and 52, or other suitable means.

Journal boxes l0 are united to or preferably similar parts formed integral with the supporting bars l5 and extend downwardly-between the posts 5l and 52 and carry journals i3 and oilless bearings l2 in which are mounted the opposite ends of a transverse blade-shaft l I. United to the bars i5 is a lower guide-plate I6 which rests upon the upper ends of the crossbars 5d and 53 and posts 5i and 52. This guide-plate is slotted to permit the rotary blades all and 4I to protrude upwardly therefrom.

The rotary blades 3d are rigidly united to the shaft Il and may be united by any suitable means, but I prefer to mount them between rings lll! which may be keyed or splined to the shaft by keys MJ or other suitable means.

For convenience I refer to the blades til as the fixed blades. Between each pair of xed blades 35 a loose blade lil is mounted to revolve in the direction opposite to the direction of revolution of the blades 3l). The fixed blades are preferably spaced part by spacing rings or oilless bearing collars 42.

Bearing rings 43 are united to the loose blades 4l on each side thereof and may be spot-welded or otherwise suitably secured thereto.

The blade-shaft I l may be driven by the pulley 4l) rigidly united to one end thereof by a pin di or other suitable means and may be driven by a belt 39 from a drive wheel 38 driven by a drive shaft 38.| which in turn may be driven by an electric motor 31 or any other suitable prime mover.

In order to drive the loose blades in the opposite direction from the xed blades, I mount a crossbar 4 in bosses or hubs 3 united to the body of the frame at the opposite sides thereof. On the bar 4 I slidingly mount a series of rings l5 carrying pivot pins 1 upon which may be mounted rolls or needle bearings 3l which are of the right diameter to bear against the fixed blade on one side and the loose blade on the other.

A dowel pin lill may be united to therjournal box I0 to project into a suitable opening in the frame ll to assist in accurately centering the cutting mechanism.

To further assist in properly centering the cut-1 ting unit, the upper ends of the rolls 3| should be pointed or the edges of the clutch plates beveled.

In order to provide protection against injury from or to the cutting blades, I mount a safety hood I9 of iron or other suitable material. This hood comprises a slotted top plate with the ends preferably curving upwardly as shown in Figure 2 and with lateral flanges extending downwardly on each side.

To support the hood I mount columns 24 upon the bars I5 at the opposite sides of the machine and slidingly mount upon the columns 24, sleeves 23. In the upper ends 2I of the sleeves 23 I provide bores in which the crossbar 22 is mounted which serves as a handle by which the entire hood can be lifted. The sleeves 23 may be adjustably united to the columns 24 by set screws 25 or other suitable means. By removing the set screws 25 and throwing off the belt 39 from the pulley 40 and then lifting the bar 22, the entire cutting mechanism may be lifted off the machine and another cutting mechanism, as sembled in another hood or sub-frame, may be substituted with a different spacing of the blades. The dowel pins I4 and I0.I form means by which the new cutting mechanism may be accurately located in the frame.

The cutting blades may be formed of any suitable metal or material and are preferably from ten to fifteen one-thousandths of an inch in thickness. They may be formed with serrated edges so as to provide teeth and may be sharpened if desired, although I find that with the thin blades described, sharpening of the teeth is not required. Any desired shape of tooth may be formed upon the edges of the cutters 30 and 4I, and if desired, a limited set may be given to the teeth, although this will not ordinarily be necessary.

The slots formed in the guide-plates I8 are preferably two or three one-thousandths of an inch wider than the thickness of the cutting blades so as to allow free revolution of the blades but restrained within the close limits necessary for acceptably slicing bread.

In order to guide the top of the blades I form corresponding slots in the top plate of the hood I9.

To strengthen the hood I9, I cast integral therewith a rib 28 which extends upwardly a short distance from the top of the hood in a rectangle extending entirely around the portion of the hood covering the blades.

As a means for feeding the bread to the machine, I provide a conveyor of canvas or other suitable fabric I8 passing over suitable drums or pulleys 54 and 55 rotatably mounted in extensions of the frame I. For a discharge conveyor I mount a conveyor i8 upon suitable drums or pulleys 49 and 5S. The discharge conveyor 48 may be driven by the wrapping machine belt 36 passing over a pulley 35 mounted upon the same shaft as the drum 49. Brace bars 28 and 29 may be used to help support the feed and discharge conveyors.

The conveyor 48 will drive the shaft of the drum 5S. A belt pulley 33 may be mounted upon one end of that shaft and carries a belt 34 which passes around a pulley 32 mounted upon one end of the shaft 8 which carries the drum 54.

If the pulleys are made of the same size, it is obvious that the conveyors 48 and I8 will travel at the same speed.

In order to hold the upper reaches of the conveyor level, I mount a flat plate 5 upon the extension of the frame directly beneath the upper reach of the conveyor I8 and a corresponding plate I'I under the upper reach of the discharge conveyor 48.

As an alternate form of drive for thev blades I have shown in Figures 6 and 7 pairs of clutch plates arranged to embrace the outer edges of the loose blades.

These clutch plates may be mounted upon the shaft M located and supported the same as described for the shaft Il.

Each pair of clutch plates comprises a fixed plate e6 rigidly united to the shaft LI by a pin 5l or other suitable means, and a loose plate 46.6 mounted upon the shaft and spaced from the fixed plate a distance equal to the thickness of a cutting blade. A spring di is secured between each pair of clutch plates and acts to exert a limited amount of pressure upon the edge of the blade inserted between the clutch plates.

The shaft 4 I may be driven by a pulley 5l arranged to engage the drive belt 35 so proportioned relative to the pulley le as to give the flange plates and the blades a corresponding peripheral speed so that both the fixed and loose blades will travel at the same speeds.

rIihe adjacent faces of the clutch plates 46 and 45A may be flat or they may be formed with a bead 58 to reduce the area of Contact between the clutch plates and the blades so as to reduce friction. Likewise, the rolls 3| are arranged on radial lines from the shaft II as the center and may be globular instead of cylindrical so as to reduce friction.

In slicing bread, occasionally the end or crust slices will be thinner than the intermediate slices. In order to prevent the end slices from falling out of place, I provide lateral guides in the form of strips of sheet metal extending longitudinally of the hood and adjustably secured to the downwardly extending flanges of the hood and midway of the height of the loaves of bread during the slicing operation. These strips 2'I have pins 26 united to them and the pins are slidably mounted in suitable bores formed in the flanges of the hood I9. The pins lit the bores closely enough to remain in any position in which they are placed, but are loose enough to permit manual adjustment inwardly or outwardly as the case may be.

In the operation of my apparatus, the machine is set in motion and the bread placed upon the feed conveyor I8 to travel in the direction shown by the arrows in Figure 1 When it reaches the slotted plate IG, it passes on into contact with the cutting blades in such a way that the cutting blades Contact the lower front corner of the loaf first and as alternate blades move in opposite directions, there is sufficient give to the bread to avoid bunching and breaking thereof and the bread passes smoothly through the cutting blades coming out onto the discharge conveyor 48 at the opposite side of the blades, from which it is led to the wrapping machine in the ordinary way.

With my arrangement, when the edges of the blades or teeth, get dull, they can readily be sharpened by inserting a suitably shaped whetstone applied to the sides of any given pair of adjacent blades or to a single blade or an entire slicing unit may be removed and replaced by a fresh one having either the same or a different spacing of the blades.

As the blades run in opposite directions, there will be little or no vibration of the machine. In order to change cutting units, the two set screws 25 must be loosened and very little time is required to loosen them and change the cutting units. However, when it is desired to change the spacing of the blades, it is necessary to substitute another crossbar 4 with rollers 3| mounted there- 5 on of the proper thickness to correspond to. thei spacing of the blades on the substituted set'.- 4

In cases Where the flangeplates ltd- Slgl are used to drive the loose blades, a newshaft" dii I withA the flange plates located thereon to correspond to the spacing'of the new set ofV blades, can be inserted in place ofthe set removed.

No claim` is made forany special1 form of feed or discharge conveyor or breadv wrapping machine, as various formsv of all.' of these are well known and in common use.

It is obvious that. variou-smodiiications to size, proportions and arrangement'Y of the parts may be made andi various substitutes used4 for different parts without departing from thel spirit ofV my invention and I! do not limit myl clai'msto the precisev forms shown in the drawings.

I' claim:

1. Abread slicing machine comprising al frame, a transverse shaft supported by the frame carry ing a series of fixed circular cutting blad'es rigidly mounted on the shaft and a series of loose cut ting blades having bearings mounted upon the shaft andrevolvable independently of the shaft, the fixed and loose bladesbeing arranged in alternation, transverse supporting. means supported by the frame, and a series of rolls rot-at ably mounted upon the transverse supporting means and projecting between the adjacent cutting blades arranged sothat each roll will contact a fixed blade on one side and a loose blade on the other side whereby when the shaft and fixed blades are revolved' in one direction, the loose blades will be caused tov revolve in the opposite direction.

2. A bread slicing machine having a framev and a slicing unit mounted in said frame, a transverse shaft in the slicing unit` carrying a series of fixed circular cutting blades rigidly mounted thereon and a series of loose cutting blades mounted upon the shaft on suitable bearings and revolvable independently of the shaft, the xed and loose blades being arranged in alternation, transverse supporting means supported by the frame, a series of rolls rotatably mounted upon the transverse supporting; means and proljecting between the adiacent cutting blades near the periphery thereof arranged so that each roll will Contact a fixed blade on one side andraloose.` blade on the other side wherebyk when the shaft and fixed blades are revolved in one direction, the loose blades will be caused to revolve in the opposite direction.

3. In a ,bread slicing machine having a frame, a transverse shaft supported by the frame carrying a. series of fixed circular cutting blades rigidly mounted thereon and a series of loose cutting blades mounted upon the shaft and revolvable independently of the shaft, the fixed and loose blades being arranged in alternation, transverse supporting means supported by the frame, a series of rolls rotatably mounted upon the transverse supporting means and projecting between the adjacent cutting blades arranged so that each roll will contact a xed blade on one side and a loose blade on the other side whereby when the shaft and fixed blades are revolved in one direction, the loose blades will be caused to revolve in the opposite direction, and means to drive the transverse shaft.

4. In a bread slicing machine, a frame and a slicing unit removably mounted on said frame; said unit comprising a sub-frame with a. transverse shaft carrying a series of fixed circular cutting blades rigidly mounted thereon and a series or looses cutting'blades` suitably? mounted upon the! shafts andv revolvable' independently of the:

shaft, the'xed and loose blades being arranged in; alternation; atransverse bar mounted in the frame parallelto thetransverse shaft, a plurality ofpivot pins carried by said bar projecting a short distance intothe spaces between the blades, rolls mounted on said pivot,` pins respectively arranged so thateach roll will contact a fixed blade on one sideand alooseblade on the other side whereby when the shaft. andI fixed blades are revolved in one, directiomthe loose," blade will be caused to revolve'` in the opposite. direction, and means to drive the blade shaft.

5.: In a bread slicing machine, a frame andv a slicing. unit removably'mounted on said frame, said unit comprising a` sub-frame with a transversek shaft carryinga series of fixe-d circular cutting blades rigidly mounted thereon and a series of loose cutting blades suitably mounted upon the shaft and revolvable independently of the shaft, the xed and looseblades being arranged in alternation, a transverse bar mounted in the frame parallel to the transverse shaft carrying revolvable driving means bearing against and actuated by the fixed blades arranged to bear against the loose blades and drivethem in a direction oppositeto the direction of revolution of the xed Iblades, and means to drive the transverse shaft.

6l Ina bread slicing,V machine, the combination with a main frame', of a slicing unit removably mounted in said frame, a transverse shaft in said unit carrying a series of fixed circular cutting blades rigidly mounted thereon and a series of r loose cutting blades* suitably mounted upon the shaft and revolvable independently of the shaft, the fixed and loose blades being arranged in alterna,- tion, a transverse bar. mounted in the main frame parallel to the` transverse shaft, a plurality of pivot pins mounted on said bar projecting a short distance into the spaces between the blades, rolls mounted on said pivot pins respectively, arranged so that each roll will Contact a xed blade on one side4 and a loosev blade on the other side wherebi7 when the shaft and fixed blades are revolved in one direction, the loose blade will be caused to revolve in the opposite direction.

'7. In a bread slicing machine, the combination with a main frame, of a, slicing unit removably mounted in said frame having` a transverse shaft carryingy a series of fixed circular cutting blades rigidly mounted thereon and a series of loose cutting blades suitably mounted upon the shaft and revolvable independently of the shaft, the fixed and loose blades being arranged in alternation, transvere supporting means supported by the frame, a series of rolls rotatably mounted upon the transverse supporting means between the adjacent cutting blades with their axes lying in a single plane radial to the shaft and so that each roll will contact a fixed blade on one side and a loose blade on the other side whereby, when the shaft and xed blades are revolved in one direction, the loose blade will be caused to revolve in the opposite direction, and means to revolve the transverse shaft.

8. In a bread slicing machine, a main frame and a slicing unit removably mounted on said frame, said unit comprising a sub-frame with a transverse shaft carrying a series of fixed circular cutting blades rigidly mounted thereon and a series of loose cutting blades revolvable independently of the shaft, the fixed and loose blades being arranged in alternation, a transverse bar mounted in the main frame parallel to the transverse shaft, a plurality of rings mounted upon said bar carrying pivot pins arranged to project a short distance into the spaces between the blades, rolls mounted on said pivot pins respectively arranged so that each roll will contact a fixed blade on one side and a loose blade on the other side whereby when the shaft and fixed blades are revolved in one direction, the loose blade will be caused to revolve in the opposite direction, and a slotted guide plate mounted in the unit above the shaft having close-fitting longitudinal slots through which the blades project upwardly and over which the bread may pass while being sliced.

9. In a bread slicing machine, a frame and a slicing unit removably mounted on said frame, said unit including a transverse shaft carrying a series of fixed circular cutting yblades rigidly mounted thereon and a series of loose cutting blades suitably mounted upon the shaft and revolvable independently of the shaft, the fixed and loose blades being arranged in alternation, a transverse shaft or bar mounted in the frame parallel to the transverse shaft, a plurality of collars mounted upon said bar carrying pivot pins projecting a short distance into the spaces between the blades, rolls mounted on said pivot pins respectively arranged so that each ioll .will contact a fixed blade on one side and a loose blade on the other side whereby when the shaft and xed blades are revolved in one direction, the loose blade will be caused to revolve in the opposite direction, and a slotted guide plate mounted in the unit above the shaft having closetting longitudinal slots through which the blades project upwardly and over which the bread may pass while being sliced, said main frame including a pair of posts united thereto and extending upwardly on opposite sides thereof and said sub-frame including a pair of sleeves mounted on said posts.

10. In a bread slicing machine, a main frame and a slicing unit removably mounted on said frame, said unit comprising a sub-frame with a transverse shaft carrying a series of fixed circular cutting blades rigidly mounted thereon and a series of loose cutting blades revolvable independently of the shaft, the xed and loose blades being arranged in alternation, a transverse bar mounted in the frame parallel to the transverse shaft, a plurality of pivot pins carried by said bar projecting a short distance into the spaces between the blades, rolls mounted on said pivot pins respectively arranged so that each roll will contact a xed blade on one side and a loose blade on the other side whereby when the shaft and xed blades are revolved in one direction, the loose blade will be caused to revolve in the opposite direction, and a slotted guide plate mounted in the unit above the shaft having closetting longitudinal slots through which the blades project upwardly and over which the bread may pass While being sliced, said main frame including means extending upwardly onv opposite sides thereof to support the sub-frame, and said sub-frame including means to coact therewith to maintain the sub-frame in xed, adjusted position, and a cover or hood having side plates and a slotted top plate carried by said unit, the slots in the top plate being parallel to and extending in the same planes as the slots in the lower guide plate, whereby said upper slots may receive and guide the uppermost portions of the blades.

11. A mechanical movement comprising a frame, a transverse shaft revolvably mounted thereon carrying a series of spaced fixed circular blades rigidly recured thereto and a series of loose blades revolvable independently of the shaft, the fixed and loose blades being arranged in alternation on the shaft, transverse supporting means supported by the frame, a series of rolls pivotally mounted upon the transverse supporting means between the adjacent blades arranged so that each roll will contact a fixed blade on one side and a loose blade on the other side whereby when the shaft and fixed blades are revolved in one direction, the loose blades will be caused to revolve in the opposite direction.

l2. In a bread slicing machine, a main frame and a slicing unit removably mounted on said frame, including a transverse blade-shaft carrying a series of fixed circular cutting blades rigidly mounted thereon and a series of loose cutting blades revolvable independently of the shaft, the fixed and loose blades being arranged in alternation, revolvable driving means bearing against and actuated by the fixed blades arranged to bear against and drive the loose blades in a direction opposite to the direction of revolution of the xed blades, and means to drive the transverse shaft.

HARRY J. CRINER. 

